nightingale

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See also: Nightingale

English

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A nightingale

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈnaɪtɪŋɡeɪl/
  • Audio (US)(file)

Etymology 1

From Middle English nyghtyngale, nightingale, niȝtingale, alteration (with intrusive n) of nyghtgale, nightegale, from Old English nihtegala, nihtegale (“nightingale; night-raven”, literally “night-singer”), from Proto-West Germanic *nahtigalā (“nightingale”), equivalent to night +‎ gale. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Noachtegoal (“nightingale”), Dutch nachtegaal (“nightingale”), Low German Nachtigall (“nightingale”), German Nachtigall (“nightingale”), Danish nattergal (“thrush nightingale”), Swedish näktergal (“nightingale”), Icelandic næturgali (“nightingale”).

Noun

nightingale (plural nightingales)

  1. A Eurasian and African songbird, Luscinia megarhynchos, family Muscicapidae, famed for its beautiful singing at night; a common nightingale.
    Nightingales have been spotted in this coppice.
    You sing like a nightingale, sport!
    • 1769, Firishta, translated by Alexander Dow, Tales translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi, volume I, Dublin: P. and W. Wilson et al., page v:
      Some admired the external beauties of the objects they beheld, like the nightingale in love with the roſe.
    • 1826, [Mary Shelley], chapter V, in The Last Man. , volume I, London: Henry Colburn, , →OCLC:
      The oaks around were the home of a tribe of nightingales.
    • 1859, Edward Fitzgerald, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia, page 2:
      And David's Lips are lock't; but in divine
      High piping Péhlevi, with "Wine! Wine! Wine!
      Red Wine!" — the Nightingale cries to the Rose
      That yellow Cheek of her's to'incarnadine.
    • 1936, F.J. Thwaites, chapter XXII, in The Redemption, Sydney: H. John Edwards, published 1940, page 222:
      The air, too, was heavy with perfume, and a nightingale, high in the heavens, gave out a cheery song of welcome.
Synonyms
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Etymology 2

Named after Florence Nightingale.

Noun

nightingale (plural nightingales)

  1. A kind of flannel scarf with sleeves, formerly worn by invalids when sitting up in bed.

Anagrams

Middle English

Noun

nightingale

  1. Alternative form of nyghtyngale
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